Malala means ‘grief stricken’.

Posted on 12 October 2013 by boryssnorc

Like most of us, I’ve been watching Malala Yousafzai’s unprecedented rise to international fame with admiration and when she was shot by the Taliban, abject horror. Having been to Pakistan and literally ‘felt’ the subjugation and oppression of grown women in that country; the courage and bravery displayed by this young girl is nothing short of remarkable. Pakistan is the sort of place where I felt the need to keep my head down and and stay on the windy side of car. I wouldn’t stand up for myself if a stranger looked at me oddly here… let alone courting being targeted by the Taliban by defending girls’ rights to education.

Malala was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March this year (2013) and was widely touted to be a favourite to be bestowed the award – which would have made Malala, the youngest recipient ever. However it was ultimately awarded to the ‘Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ last week. The Taliban was immediately in the international press saying they were ‘delighted’ that Malala, the young girl whom they still intend to kill, was overlooked for this honour.

“Even if there was a gun in my hand and he was standing in front of me, I would not shoot him [referring to the member of the Taliban that shot her in October of 2012].

This is the compassion I have learned from Mohamed, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa.

And this is the forgiveness that I have learned from my father and from my mother. This is what my soul is telling me: Be Peaceful and Love Everyone.”

– Malala Yousafzai

These men, and I use the term loosely, connected to the Taliban who continue to threaten to kill Malala, have a lot to learn from this little girl.

Twitter – direct access.

Posted on 27 September 2013 by boryssnorc

I have only been using Twitter for a little over a year – I know, I’m fashionably late to the party, as per usual – and have inadvertently found myself ensconced in the warm fuzzy grip of what I like to call, the ‘Great Australian Labor Party Circle Jerk’.

One of the things that seems to happen almost by osmosis on Twitter is the ‘birds of a feather, flock together’ thing. That is, like minded people with similar interests and opinions end up following each other, and retweeting one another, and not to mention sharing and resharing each others links until they are all over the place like some sort of informative glitter herpes, as they pervasively inhabit every crook and crevice of your Twitter feed! This is never more apparent than when following people primarily engaged in the political arena. The main impetus behind my ending up in this particularly, erm… illustrious circle, was to engage in that now, much beloved Queensland past time – Campbell Newman bashing. The decidedly nepotistic and morally bankrupt, Queensland Premier conducts himself like a reincarnation of Napoleon (complete with Little Man Syndrome), in such a dictatorial manner that he may as well tattoo a frigging target on his forehead! So yeah, anyway… all these people with similar opinions crowd together daily, in a social media enabled, schadenfreudristic political feeding frenzy, which recently culminating with the meat food provided by the federal election, and the victory of a complete prat that the ALPCJ absolutely love to hate! Actually, for a while there people seemed confused as to whether to stick with the tried and true, comforting and familiar Newman Bashing or to switch to the new and exciting, yet very satisfying, Abbott Bashing – fortunately for all involved, the ALPCJ resolved this dilemma by determining that it is possible to have it all, and proceeded to swiftly and efficiently bash BOTH Newman and Abbott, via the inherently flexible #LNPfail hastag!

This entire process of gravitating towards like minded individuals, or as I like to think of them from time to time, stark raving lunatics, is not even remotely surprising given the Twitter environment seriously discourages diversity of opinion. For you see, when someone comes in from ‘outside’ and spews forth a diametrically opposed view to your own, they rarely do so with any courtesy. The limitation of 140 characters per tweet, does not a polite interjection, make. As such, niceties are frequently abandoned in favour of making as strong a point as possible AND should that approach fail, or should the ‘outsider’ not have a sufficient grasp of the overarching issues, the specific case in point, or even just the English vernacular!, they often use their 140 characters to slag off at the original poster using nasty four letter words that you’d never dream of directing at a perfect stranger, were it not for the anonymity of the internet! Naturally these trolls end up blocked pretty quickly. The result of this decided lack of courtesy is that most of the people you end up following and/or are following you, tend to reflect, rather than challenge, your own ideologies.

But I have digressed considerably from my original intention when I set down to write this post. I was going to write about ACCESS. It’s the ease of access, or the appearance thereof, that I find most amusing on Twitter. Access to people in positions of power, celebrity or influence. Access to what they are thinking, access to what they might be doing, access in many cases of unprecedented direct contact. Whether such communications are received or dignified with a response or not, is irrelevant… Twitter enables the masses to communicate directly with well known person, and what they choose to do with those tweets is, for many tweeter, neither here nor there.

I can tweet at Dita von Teese and tell her to pull her head out of her arse: “Why on earth are you tweeting about a fucking perfume launch, the day after 20 school children are shot dead? #BimboAlert”. I can tweet at Pope Francis and tell him: “Keep up the good work, it’s about time we had a progressive Head of the Catholic Church – hope you survive the inevitable assassination attempts! #HistoryRepeats”. Or I can even tweet at Annastacia Palaszczuk, Leader of the Queensland Opposition (the self same one who was notably and completely absent from the media during the recent Federal election even though she was well placed to be telegraphing to the entire country what a disaster zone Queensland is turning into under a LNP Coalition government but was obviously too busy plucking her eyebrows or something, and we barely heard a peep out of the bint with the unpronounceable surname!), when she’s headed out for a night on the town…

Now I got to ask you – as a public figure, whether you’re a burlesque strip tease artist, head of one of the worlds largest religious institutions of the leader of a political party – why would you lay yourself open like this?!? It’s completely irrational.

Btw, I never received a reply to this Tweet – how rude! 😉 – but Ms Absent From The Media Palaszczuk, has been seen in the news challenging the Newman Government every day since I sent it!

Abbott Proof the Senate!

Posted on 29 August 2013 by boryssnorc

According to the polls, the LNP is going to win the upcoming Federal election. Is no one watching what has just happened in Queensland?!?

Can’t Do Campbell Newman got into office having promised ZERO public service cuts and well, as we have seen, he fucking LIED. The Qld LNP Govt has sacked 14,000 permanent public servants (that they are owning up to) and an estimated 6-7,000 temporary staff and contractors who didn’t were let go at the end of their contracts. He promised no ‘front line services’ would be affected, then swiftly redefined what ‘front line services’ are, so that nurses, healthcare workers, counsellors, aged care employees, rural fire services and communities and families officers were not considered ‘front line’, so out the door with them! Who needs health, aged care and preventative services in the community anyway?

Newman promised ‘no forced redundancies’, but many people were angled into positions with very limited options and very bleak outlooks, so had no option but to take redundancy packages and leave. Services in Queensland have been severely affected, across both metropolitan and rural areas. Then there’s the flow on effects… Brisbane has seen coffee shops, restaurants, retail and service industries laying off staff, and even going out of business, as people have reduced their retail and hospitality spending. Indiscriminate culling of jobs – and that is what happened here, it was all about the head count, not their functions – leads to higher unemployment in all sectors and a down turn in economic growth. It has also led to a stressed and over worked public service as many people struggled to do the work of their sacked colleagues… and yet there is still a perception among the masses that the ‘public servants DO nothing’ and that ‘none of them work anyway’. Obviously these people aren’t seeing what I’m seeing – public servants who work 12-14 hour days (with no flex or overtime) who are also spending their weekends working to keep up with the demands of his role thanks to lack of staff!!!

All these sackings also led to some very dodgy dealings. I am aware of at least one high level public servant who was sacked for his political affiliation NOT because his job was no longer needed, as his position was immediately back filled. I am aware of at least one situation where a senior executive took a redundancy package to officially lop off a permanent position, but he was back within weeks doing pretty much the same job as a contractor through a third party company. Fast forward twelve months and that individual is now back in his original job as a permanent public servant doing the same original function he was employed to do in the first place and with a nice fat back pocket for his troubles.

Abbott has said he will sack 12,000 federal public servants to save $5.1bn – though the Australian people will have to wait until the LNP has formed government to see the details. These figures have been already been refuted by the incumbent Finance minister Penny Wong, who claims at least 20,000 people would have to go to achieve that target… Canberra with 20,000 less gainfully employed individuals would see the city’s vibrant hospitality industry decimated, and a forced mass exodus from the region as people flee looking for employment opportunities. In turn this could flood the market with real estate, and oh big surprise a correlating tumble in housing prices. And if he says that 12,000 have to go… I’d put money on seeing double that getting marched out the door.

Need more reasons NOT to vote for an Abbott-led LNP?

How about his climate change denials? Abbott will see us all underwater before deciding Australia needs to be leading the world in alternative energies.
What about the Paid Parental Leave program which leaves the less privileged equally less privileged!
His repeated denial of equal rights for ALL Australians in his refusal to allow a conscience vote on Marriage Equality – fuck you and the horse you rode in on! This man has no right to determine how and where someone finds love and happiness.
Abbott’s encouragement of ‘women of calibre’ to have more children – a person who has dedicated their life to volunteering in the community or an unwaged PhD student is entitled to nothing under your PPL plan? Mustn’t be ‘women of calibre’, hey?
How about his complete inability to think on his feet and his reassurances that ‘only carefully scripted remarks can be taken as gospel’? Is this the man you want negotiating for and representing Australia on the international stage?
Then there’s the complete joke known as the LNP Fraudband plan… fuck! We are already behind the rest of the world in internet infrastructure, costs and speeds – why would we settle for old technology?
And if that’s not enough, what about his swept-under-the-table-by-the-Murdoch-media, illegal dealings in the taking down of Peter Slipper?

I could go on, but I really need to consider doing something more productive today than venting on a blog. Tony Abbott is nothing but stuffed shirt. The very definition of a political puppet. The idea of this misogynistic buffoon representing Australia in the international arena is cringeworthy, and yet if you believe the polls, the newspapers and the mainstream media, he’s going to be our next Prime Minister.

The election is looming and I am hoping that people have been watching the cautionary tale that has unravelled before our very eyes, in Queensland… my other hopes are being strictly reserved for anyone who has the lack of foresight to vote for THIS LNP coalition – I don’t mean to impugn people who normally vote for the Liberal party or LNP coalition, but THIS current manifestation of the LNP is a disaster waiting to happen, and it feels like a deadly snake coiled around Australia’s heartland, with the ever present self interested Rupert Murdoch behind it, ready to poke the viper to make it strike the minute the clock ticks over to September 8th.

If you absolutely MUST vote for Abbott and his vituperative, vicious, and vainglorious team… for God’s sake vote for someone else in the Senate to keep the bastards honest!

John Cleese assessment of Europe

Posted on 27 August 2013 by boryssnorc

ALERTS TO THREATS – IN 2013 EUROPE

From JOHN CLEESE

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France ‘s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”

The Germans have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose.”

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels ..

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from “No worries” to “She’ll be right, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is cancelled.” So far no situation has ever warranted use of the last final escalation level.

Regards,
John Cleese ,
British writer, actor and tall person

And as a final thought – Greece is collapsing, the Iranians are getting aggressive, and Rome is in disarray. Welcome back to 430 BC.

Life is too short…

The real difference between France and America.

Posted on 22 May 2013 by boryssnorc

I’ve always thought it was language, cuisine, fashion and culture that separated these two geographically and culturally disparate nations. But after this week… I think there’s way more that separates these two diverse countries than just 5,500 miles, interesting fashion choices and a differences of opinion about cheese being a major food group!

Yesterday, Dominique Venner eminent French author, historian and journalist, shot himself inside Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral allegedly in protest of recent ‘vile laws’ legalising same sex marriage and adoptions to same sex couples. Just prior to his interesting choice of political statement, he had published an article on his (extremely right wing) website encouraging other activists to ‘take measures’ to protect French and European identities from being eroded by such laws as these. Why would a seemingly intelligent well read, often published, historian and essayist choose to top himself in such a public manner, in such a public place and in what looks like a misguided attempt to martyr himself for a decidedly outdated cause? On the surface it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense… wouldn’t the more prudent academic choose instead to use his reputation to publish his vitriolic sentiments and engage the law makers of the day in relation to the laws he found so offensive? After all do not the intelligentsia believe the pen is mightier than the sword?

It’s such a bizarre thing to happen in France, and of all places in a national monument such as Notre Dame Cathedral. Now, as we’ve seen time and time again, disgruntled Americans don’t take themselves to an iconic places of religious worship and shoot themselves in the head leaving behind a clear and concise (however nutty) explanation for their actions… No. The American way to express displeasure at the establishment is usually manifested by the disenfranchised by taking themselves to various educational institutions and shooting numerous random strangers and students that have the misfortune to be in the vicinity, leaving only vague hypotheses for their actions.

Neither course seems very appealing, or even practical, if one’s aim is to change the society one has the happenstance to find oneself born into and participating in. Personally, I can’t say I identify with either course of action to deal with dissatisfaction with my country socio-political direction. But where do either of these extreme behaviours come from?

I also saw another article this week discussing inherent differences between French and American parenting habits. The Readers’ Digest version of that article is that the French are very strict and raise their children to be self regulating and well disciplined from an early age. So much so, that the French DSMV doesn’t recognize ADHD as a neuro-biological disorder, rather they consider ADHD as having psycho-social and situational causes… meaning that they do not believe that ADHD is something that people are born with but instead believe it is largely due to parenting habits, food and dietary problems and underlying social problems. This refusal to admit that children have a problem has resulted in less than 0.5% of children in France being diagnosed with ADHD and being treated with Ritalin or Adderall.

Compare this with 9% of school aged American children diagnosed with ADHD and being treated with the same drugs. Are American children genetically predisposed to neuro-biological conditions? Or are American children riding rough shot and externalising and acting out all the time instead of being encouraged towards self discipline at an early age? Maybe this is ultimately why a disgruntled Frenchman decides to make his political statement by ending his own life instead of the Americanized version of extreme political activism which usually results in the ending in the lives of others!